An electrophotographic image forming apparatus using a developer (such as toner) is provided with a photosensitive drum as an image carrier, a charging device, an exposure device, a development device, a transfer device, a fusing device, and a cleaning device. This image forming apparatus forms an electrostatic latent image on the photosensitive drum by exposing the surface of the photosensitive drum uniformly charged by the charging device to light by the exposure device, and forms a toner image on the photosensitive drum by developing this electrostatic latent image by the development device using toner. Afterwards, the toner image is transferred to a sheet of paper by the transfer device and fused to the sheet by the fusing device. Also, toner remaining on the photosensitive drum after the transfer is removed by the cleaning device.
The development device is provided with a toner accommodation part as a developer accommodation part, a supply roller as a developer supply member, a development roller as a developer carrier, and a regulation blade as a regulating member. This development device supplies toner accommodated in the toner accommodation part to the development roller by the supply roller, makes the layer thickness of toner on the development roller uniform by the regulation blade in contact with the development roller, and then has the toner on the development roller adhere to the electrostatic latent image formed on the photosensitive drum, thereby developing the electrostatic latent image.
Conventionally, in such an image forming apparatus as this, foreign bodies such as shavings of the supply roller occasionally become stuffed in the contact place between the development roller and the regulation blade, and in order to remove these foreign bodies, the development roller was periodically rotated in the opposite direction from that during image formation (i.e., during development) (e.g., see Patent Document 1).